Tuesday, January 26, 2016

After just a few pages into his latest book, Inside Reagan’s Navy, I knew I had to
Q&A with Ambassador Untermeyer. It was clear that he had an inside look at
a part of our government only a few are privilidged to see, however, it was his casual,
relatable diary entries that make his book truly unique. Rather than an
embellished and overly-dramatic tell-all, Untermeyer's entries reveal day to day life at the pentagon in a way that is easy to understand, believable, and still captivating. The author, himself, is just as interesting.
Ambassador Untermeyer eagerly agreed to my request to do a Q&A with him, much to
my appreciation. Here is a peak inside the mind behind Inside Reagan’s Navy:

Q: You have been a diarist since the age of nine. What
encouraged you to share your diary entries relative to your time in the White
House and Pentagon?

Ambassador Untermeyer: I felt the journal entries would not
only tell the story of those very interesting days but do so in a fresh,
contemporaneous manner.

Q: As a person who has experienced life in the Pentagon and
the White House, how does public opinion of these entities compare to the
reality of what goes on in both?

Ambassador
Untermeyer: Perhaps the greatest pubic misperception of the White House is that
it runs the US Government. At most, the White House sets the policy and the
message for the administration and handles the politics. Day-to-day governing
is done by the president’s appointees in the departments and agencies. What the
public may not fully grasp about the Pentagon is how convoluted its bureaucracy
(both military and civilian) is and how much that bureaucracy is fixated on the
budgetary process.

Q:In the book you describe the White
House as a "silken cocoon." Why was it a silken cocoon, and why did
you feel the need to leave?

Ambassador
Untermeyer: The White House is a “silken cocoon” because it is a very special
place where historic things happen and whose denizens live every day in a
rarefied atmosphere. Few who work there, in any administration of either party,
can conceive of being anywhere else. I enjoyed and appreciated both my spells
of duty in the West Wing, but I knew that to gain genuine satisfaction and
benefit from serving in Washington, I had to leave for a job in a
department/agency where policy is actually implemented.

Q: You
seem to express admiration for Jeb Bush in your book. Why, and what are your
thoughts regarding his current campaign?

Ambassador
Untermeyer: I have known Jeb Bush since 1979, when he was 23 years old and
working in his father’s first campaign for president. Even then, he struck me
as a man of mature depth, strength, and judgment. His subsequent service as
governor of Florida demonstrated how well he can handle complex issues and
political controversy in a very diverse place. These are exactly what we need
and expect in a president. Although I wish Jeb’s poll numbers were higher than
they are right now, over the length of the primary campaign I am confident that
voters will come to see these qualities and support him.

Q:In your book you suggest an alternative solution to Navy
Disability Pay. What might those changes look like today?

Ambassador
Untermeyer: Any disability system needs sensible rules, but it must allow
someone at the top – in this case, the (civilian) secretary of a military
service or his/her designee – to bend or overrule those guidelines if
particular cases merit such sympathetic action.

Q: You express concern in the book about your reputation as
a political fixer. Was this a fair assessment in your opinion, and in what ways
has this perception changed over time?

Ambassador
Untermeyer: Although I have had a life-long interest in politics – and won
election to public office all four times that I ran – I have never been a
political “operative”. (I prefer this word to “fixer”, because the latter
denotes someone outside government who seeks to affect administrative and
legislative decisions. The operative is concerned with winning elections.) But
I have recognized that in the American system, opportunities to serve in
government often (if not always) come from helping specific candidates in their
campaigns. When people ask how I became an ambassador, I only half-jokingly
reply, “I stood in the snow in New Hampshire and waved a sign.” President
George W. Bush certainly appointed me to head the US embassy in Qatar for other
reasons, but he also knew I was a proven supporter.

Q: What do you believe is one of the greatest things readers
are able to take away from Inside Reagan's Navy?

Ambassador Untermeyer: I hope the book conveys some of the drama, excitement,
and humor in a major center of action during in the Reagan Administration, the
Navy Department. If I have succeeded, people who were not even born yet can
sense what it was like to be in Washington during those days.

To get a closer look at Ambassador Untermeyer’s life in the
pentagon, purchase Inside Reagan’s Navyhere.

I would like to thank Ambassador Untermeyer for taking the
time to engage in this Q&A with me and for his willingness to offer such
candid responses.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Riparian
areas—transitional zones between the aquatic environments of streams, rivers
and lakes and the terrestrial environments on and alongside their banks—are
special places. They provide almost 200,000 miles of connections through which
the waters of Texas flow. Keeping the water flowing, in as natural a way as
possible, is key to the careful and wise management of the state’s water
resources.

Texas Riparian Areas evolved from a report commissioned by the Texas
Water Development Board as Texas faced the reality of over-allocated water
resources and long-term if not permanent drought conditions. Its purpose was to
summarize the characteristics of riparian areas and to develop a common
vocabulary for discussing, studying, and managing them.

Thomas B.Hardy is professor of biology and chief
science officer at The Meadows Center
for Water and the Environment at Texas State University where he specializes in
watershed
planning, riparian corridors, and aquatic ecosystem dynamics.

Nicole A. Davis is a graduate research assistant at The Meadows Center for
Water and the
Environment and a PhD candidate in aquatic resources at Texas State University.

Monday, August 17, 2015

George Bristol, author of On Politics and Parks, is founder of the Texas Coalition for
Conservation, a nonprofit alliance that has coordinated efforts to maintain
funding for Texas state parks. He also served as a board member of the National
Park Foundation and as a consultant on the Ken Burns PBS series on national
parks.

Texas A&M University Press:
Why is this new funding appropriation important for Texas Parks and Wildlife?

George Bristol: With the
passage of HB 158 the Texas Legislature has guaranteed a substantial and
reliable flow of funding from the "Sporting Goods Sales Tax" for
the foreseeable future. Both from a budget planning standpoint, as well as
a method to keep our parks attractive and attracting visitors, such a
commitment is essential. That has always been the case, but now the
legislature has recognized, honored, and fulfilled that obligation. It
will mean millions of dollars to repair old parks and plan and develop new
parks that have recently been added to the system. Hopefully much of this work
can be accomplished by 2023—the centennial of the Texas State Park
System.

TAMU Press: Can you shed any
insight into how it all came together?

GB: For the past 14 years,
principally through the constant work of the Texas Coalition for
Conservation, there has been a growing groundswell of support for consistent
and reliable funding from the revenues generated by the "Sporting
Goods Sales Tax" which is not a separate tax, but part of the existing
sales tax structure of Texas. Not only were like minded organizations recruited
to join the effort, but tools for advocacy were created: economic impact
studies of state parks on local communities and businesses, public opinion
surveys before each session of the legislature and materials to be used
for op-ed pieces in the news media, as well as for letters and emails to
elected officials. Slowly but surely the accumulation of fact and
persuasion caused leaders like Speaker Joe Straus and Representatives
Hilderbran and Larson to lend their support to efforts to correct past
wrongs. HB158 is the last and hopefully conclusive monumental achievement
of all those efforts over all those years.

TAMU Press: What are some of
the challenges, in your view, that Texas Parks and Wildlife will face long-term
from a funding perspective? How might those needs be met going forward?

GB: The future is not easy
to predict. What is easy to judge is that, I believe, given the proper
financial tools, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and its staff is capable
of putting those new-found dollars to work for the betterment of the parks
and park visitors. Obviously a body blow to the overall financial well-being of
the state, can and will affect budgets. However, I am confident that there are
enough well- informed legislators who will be around to make up the shortfalls
when the economy rights itself. Furthermore, I am confident that well maintained
and operated parks are one of the answers to a strong economy. Coupled with the
physical, mental, and spiritual well-being provided by parks, Texas will be a
better place to live and raise families.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

In the wake of the BP oil spill, the Associated Press
reports the Gulf of Mexico is resilient, yet scarred.

After BP issued a 40-page report in March pronouncing the
Gulf mostly recovered (and noting that less than 2 percent of the water and
seafloor sediment samples exceeded federal toxicity levels), AP surveyed 26
marine scientists about two dozen aspects of the fragile ecosystem to see how
the waterway has changed before the 2010 spill.

Among other species that have been in decline, the AP
reports the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle’s population has declined to a
decade low.

After the spill, Oregon State University professor Selina
Saville Heppell said, the number of nests dropped 40 percent in one year in
2010.

“We had never seen a drop that dramatic in one year before,”
she told AP. The population climbed in 2011 and 2012 but then fell again in
2013 and 2014.

Heppell said while there is not enough data or research to
blame the spill, changing nesting trends could be due to many factors,
including natural variability and record cold temperatures.

Check out the Texas A&M University Press Gulf of Mexico Origin, Waters, and Biota
series, which includes an economic snapshot of the Gulf of Mexico prior to the
spill and looks at other facets of the Gulf: biodiversity, geology, and
ecosystem-based management. The volumes are part of the Harte Research
Institute’s landmark scientific series on the Gulf of Mexico.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Experts on Thursday estimated that flooding across Texas
could lead to insurance claims of more than $1.1 billion, topping the amount
paid to policyholders in 2001 after the damage caused by Tropical Storm
Allison, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

But, the aftermath of the most recent spate of floods is not
the worst the state has seen.

“Texans enjoy being
number one in many fields,” writes Jonathan Burnett in the introduction to his
2008 book Flash Floods of Texas
(Texas A&M University Press). “ Unfortunately, one area in which Texas is
consistently foremost in the United States is the number of deaths attributed
to flooding.”

From 1995-2004, Texas topped this list in seven of 10 years.

“One reason that Texas is typically near the head of this
list is that the location and landscape of the Lone Star State make it prone to
flash floods,” says Burnett. “Deluges at Del Rio in August 1998, in the Hill
Country in October 1998, in Houston in 2001 and in the summer of 2007 in Marble
Falls (where 12-18 inches fell in less than four hours) solidified Texas’
reputation as having some of the most flash flood-prone land in the world.

According to Burnett, no part of Texas is immune to flash
floods; the state lies in the path of sources of copious moisture from the Gulf
of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.

Current and ongoing flooding is hurting more than residences
and businesses in the path of floodwaters.

Texas Parks and Wildlife is reporting
the torrential storms that have continued to hammer much of the state for more
than a week are now also leaving their mark on Texas’ State Park system. As of
Wednesday, more than 50 state parks report some damage as a result of
significant rainfall; about half of the sites are currently either closed or
partially closed to the public due to flooding.

Houston has been one of the hardest-hit cities in the flooding,
and it could see more storms in the next five days, according to the National
Weather Service. And, areas farther north, including Dallas, could get another
2-4 inches of rain through Sunday.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

In 1836, west of the Mississippi was considered the Wild
West, and the Texas frontier was viewed as hell on earth. Crushed from the
outside by Mexican armadas and attacked from within by ferocious Comanche
tribes, no one was safe.

Credit: History Channel

Credit: History Channel

The History Channel’s Texas
Rising, a 10-hour event series airing this week and starring headliners
such as Bill Paxton, Brendan Frazier, and Ray Liotta, dramatizes events
following the Alamo’s fall. The series premiered Memorial Day to 4.1 million viewers.

First published in hardback in 2004 by Texas A&M
University Press, Davis etches the characters of Sam Houston, Stephen F.
Austin, and General Santa Anna – and the cultures they represented – in sharp
and very human relief, as they carved out the republic whose Lone Star rose in
1836 and changed the course of a continent.

Davis, author of more than 40 books including Three Roads to
the Alamo, is professor of history and director of programs for the Virginia
Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech.

Friday, January 23, 2015

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Did you know that bats are one of the most ecologically and economically important wildlife species worldwide, but also one of the most threatened?

In the United States, almost half of the 47 bat species are listed as endangered, threatened or sensitive at a federal or state level. In Texas, 23 bat species are listed as “species of greatest conservation need” in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Texas Conservation Action Plan.

An article in the latest issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine focuses on partnerships between TPWD and Bat Conservation International to prevent further bat species extinctions and help identify and protect significant bat areas to ensure lasting survival of the world's 1,300-plus bat species.

For more on Texas's four families of bat species, check out the Texas A&M Press book Bats of Texasby experts Loren Ammerman, Christine L. Hice, and David J. Schmidly.